Service Delivery Review
What is the purpose of the Service Delivery Review?
Why does DVA need to have a Review?
What are the key principles of the Review?
What is the Review looking at?
What is the review not about?
What will be evident to the veteran community?
When will the changes happen?
What is the purpose of the Service Delivery Review?
The Review is examining DVA's existing service delivery and developing broad options and strategies that will enable us to match our resources to an expected decline in our workload over the next 10 years.
It will enable us to build a vibrant and viable Department with a strong future.
Why does DVA need to have a Review?
The Repatriation system has entered a period of rapid change. The number of veterans and dependants receiving DVA benefits is reducing, their geographical spread is changing and the surviving population is predominately a frail aged group. The Department has also gained responsibility for managing military rehabilitation and compensation for serving Australian Defence Force members and will be faced with additional challenges in meeting the needs of our newest veterans and serving personnel.
These factors present significant challenges to the Department. We must adjust to accommodate an increasing number of younger clients, many of whom are still in full-time employment, and a small increase in war widow/widower numbers while continuing our services to older veterans whose numbers are reducing, but whose needs are becoming more complex. DVA must also provide a service to the growing number of family members who are contacting DVA on behalf of veterans and war widows/widowers.
Essentially the Department will need to undergo a fundamental business redesign in order to continue to deliver high quality services to the veteran and defence communities over the next 10 years, while also moving to an organisational size that aligns with a smaller client base.
What are the key principles of the Review?
The Review is committed to a number of key principles. They are:
- DVA will continue to have a senior presence in each State
- DVA will continue to provide quality service to veterans
- There will be an on-going requirement to increase efficiency
- Technological change will continue to influence the way we do our business
What is the Review looking at?
We are re-organising our internal structure, basing it on process rather than product. For example, we will be bringing together those areas that handle claims from veterans, war widow/widowers and providers into a single work group.
We are also looking at our National Office and Corporate Services functions to see if they need to be done in Canberra or if they can be done more efficiently.
The Review is also looking at the way we handle direct client contact, as the telephone becomes the preferred means for the veteran community and their families to get in touch with us. The way in which we deliver our services to veterans, war widows/widowers and serving members will be examined by the Review, so that the Department is best able to continue to provide a high level of service to the veteran community, irrespective of where they live.
This is not an exercise in outsourcing. We currently contract a range of health professionals to deliver health services and arrange for agencies such as Centrelink to provide some of our services and we will continue to do so in the future. DVA staff currently delivers the vast majority of our services and this will continue to be the case in the future.
We are not looking to close or downsize the DVA Offices located in the smaller State capitals. Without change these offices would become less viable. The Service Delivery Review is about maintaining a presence in all State capital locations.
Nor is the Review about closing our VANs. Some of our VANs are the most cost effective service delivery outlets and others are very costly. No decision has been taken to close any VAN.
Also, the Review is about the way DVA delivers services to veterans, war widows/widowers and the defence force communities. It will not affect the types of benefits that are delivered.
What will be evident to the veteran community?
There will still be a Deputy Commissioner in each State who will continue to be responsible for
- Managing State specific issues
- Monitoring service delivery performance in their State
- Managing relationships with ESOs, provider bodies and individual veterans in their State, and
- State based representational activities.
The high level of service and responsiveness of the Department will be maintained, if not improved.
It is intended that the veteran and defence force communities will generally not notice the internal restructuring as it takes place.
As part of the process of matching resources with workload, not all State Offices will continue to undertake the range of services that they currently provide, and determinations and decisions may be made away from the veteran's or war widow’s/widower’s home State. DVA is confident that this will not affect the quality or timeliness of its services. There will be a small number of cases where face-to-face liaison is required, and DVA will make arrangements to ensure that this happens.
A project team started work on developing an organisational model in July 2005. There have been information sessions delivered to DVA staff about the scope of the Review during August. A number of demonstration projects are running to demonstrate aspects of the new departmental structure.
The outcomes of these demonstration projects will be used to inform an implementation timetable.
Broadly it is expected that aspects of the new model will start to operate in 2006. In the first stages, the main change that affects staff is that their reporting lines might be different. It will be some years before the new model is fully functional.
November 2005
For further information contact:
Ms Josephine Schumann Ph: (02) 6289-4777
Or by mail
DVA Service Delivery Review
PO Box 21
WODEN ACT 2606
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